The College Admissions Frenzy

A campus tour at Harvard University.CreditCreditCharlie Mahoney for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Rethinking College Admissions,” by Frank Bruni (column, Jan. 20), about a report, “Turning the Tide,” urging changes to make applying to colleges less stressful:

Having taught at a highly selective college for 45 years, I have witnessed the competition-induced stress and grade focus of modern college students, so it is a relief to see institutions like mine banding together to do something about it. That said, I think that if such institutions think that merely by changing their admissions criteria they will end this arms race of credentialing, they are kidding themselves.

As long as there are any criteria used to distinguish spectacular students from merely great ones, it is just a matter of time before new system-gaming strategies will emerge. The only solution to this problem I can think of is for schools like mine simply to put the names of all the applicants they think are good enough to succeed into a hat and then admit their class by lottery. Then, to get into Harvard, or Stanford or Swarthmore, students will have to be good enough … and lucky.

Though admissions people won’t admit this, admissions is already a lottery. If selective schools are honest about this, they can defuse the pressure on high school students in a heartbeat.

BARRY SCHWARTZ

Swarthmore, Pa.

The writer is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College.

To the Editor:

As a high school junior, I was relieved to hear that many major universities have come up with reasonable steps to curb the frenzies that students get themselves into, such as eliminating the drive to have as many outside activities as possible. But I take issue with the position Frank Bruni takes on Advanced Placement classes and his description of students who apply to elite colleges.

Mr. Bruni vilifies the “A.P. everything” culture, but the A.P. classes I’m taking are both interesting and immensely beneficial. Taking advanced courses in both STEM subjects (physics) and the humanities — American history and language and composition — allows me to see what classes I might enjoy in college and what profession I might enjoy.

Mr. Bruni says many students who apply to top colleges are “slavish adherents to soulless scripts that forbid the exploration of genuine passions,” but that could not be farther from the truth for me and many other “exceptional” students. It is possible for me to take three A.P. classes, play sports, do community service, participate on the student council and do everything else that I do while still having my own life.

I still joke around with friends, spend time with my family, and find time to be addicted to iPhone games and crosswords. Painting adolescents as obsessive robots is not a path to meaningful change.

JACK MOLLIN

Mamaroneck, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Last year, 37,307 high school students applied to Harvard, and 1,990 were accepted, for an acceptance rate of 5.3 percent. If the admissions criteria envisioned by the report “Turning the Tide” were to be adopted, the number of applicants would likely increase. No matter what the admissions criteria, these teenagers and their parents will still compete intensely to meet and exceed them.

There will still be a “competitive frenzy” among these applicants, which “jeopardizes their mental health.” The “hoops” will still be there, but they will be different hoops. Sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression will continue at current levels.

To be sure, the composition of the incoming class would be different, but the number of “emotional wrecks” would still be the same. There is no way to eliminate the pressured competition from a situation that is inherently competitive.